October 2008 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

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The Top 300 Comics Dollar sales in October were the highest they had been since the beginning of the Diamond Exclusive era, in April 1997. Likewise, the Overall Comics, Trade Paperback, and Magazine sales figure also set the highest mark since that category became trackable in 2003.

Secret Invasion #7 was the top book, meaning that the Marvel title has topped the charts for every single month of 2008 since it began. That was the longest such run in the Diamond era since Uncanny X-Men had a ten-issue run topping the charts in 1999. Civil War's run was broken up by not shipping in two months, but it also had seven issues at the #1 slot. Historically, Uncanny X-Men likely had longer runs than that at #1 in the 1980s.

The average cost and average weighted cost of new comics in the Diamond Top 300 was higher than at any previous time in the Diamond era, and almost certainly in the history of comics. The average cost of all comics in the Top 300 was $3.38 — and the weighted average, total dollars divided by total units, was $3.31. The Top 25 comics had an average price of $3.39, so the top of the list was particularly pricey.

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 chart. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

Note: This category diverges slightly from Diamond's reported measures for all comics and graphic novels. Slight differences are introduced by the presence of magazines and other factors.

Average cost of comics in the Top 300:$3.38

Average cost of comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders:$3.31

Average cost of comics in the Top 25:$3.39

Median cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.99

Most common cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.99

MARKET SHARES

Share of Overall Units

Marvel

44.83%

DC

32.96%

Dark Horse

3.33%

IDW

3.27%

Image

3.04%

Dynamic

2.82%

Devil's Due

0.89%

Viz

0.86%

Avatar

0.79%

Wizard

0.60%

Zenescope

0.52%

Archie

0.48%

Tokyopop

0.33%

Random House

0.25%

Oni

0.19%

Digital Manga

0.18%

Gemstone

0.13%

Fantagraphics

0.12%

Eaglemoss

0.11%

Drawn & Quarterly

0.10%

Other

4.19%

Share of Overall Dollars

Marvel

39.36%

DC

31.55%

Dark Horse

5.40%

IDW

3.21%

Image

2.81%

Dynamic

2.43%

Viz

1.80%

Devil's Due

1.02%

Avatar

0.98%

Wizard

0.83%

Random House

0.79%

Tokyopop

0.79%

Fantagraphics

0.52%

Zenescope

0.51%

Digital Manga

0.48%

Drawn & Quarterly

0.36%

Archie

0.34%

Gemstone

0.34%

Oni

0.33%

Eaglemoss

0.31%

Other

5.82%

Items in Top 300

Marvel

105

DC

94

Image

19

IDW

18

Dynamic

16

Dark Horse

11

Devil's Due

8

Avatar

5

Zenescope

5

Bongo

3

Dabel

3

Archie

2

Aspen

2

Abstract

1

Ardden

1

Cartoon

1

Gemstone

1

Moonstone

1

Radical

1

Oni

1

Red 5

1

Udon

1

Share of Units in Top 300

Marvel

49.68%

DC

35.18%

IDW

3.25%

Dynamic

3.04%

Image

2.69%

Dark Horse

2.42%

Avatar

0.72%

Devil's Due

0.57%

Zenescope

0.51%

Aspen

0.31%

Bongo

0.30%

Dabel

0.20%

Abstract

0.17%

Cartoon

0.16%

Archie

0.16%

Udon

0.14%

Radical

0.12%

Ardden

0.10%

Oni

0.09%

Moonstone

0.07%

Red 5

0.07%

Gemstone

0.06%

Share of Dollars in Top 300

Marvel

49.99%

DC

34.92%

IDW

3.50%

Dynamic

2.81%

Image

2.49%

Dark Horse

2.19%

Avatar

0.89%

Devil's Due

0.77%

Zenescope

0.50%

Bongo

0.27%

Aspen

0.26%

Dabel

0.18%

Abstract

0.18%

Cartoon

0.17%

Udon

0.17%

Gemstone

0.14%

Ardden

0.12%

Oni

0.11%

Radical

0.11%

Archie

0.11%

Moonstone

0.08%

Red 5

0.06%

Dollar Share of Top 300 Comics & Top 100 TPBs

Marvel

46.62%

DC

36.31%

Dark Horse

4.35%

IDW

2.97%

Dynamic

2.84%

Image

2.09%

Avatar

1.01%

Devil's Due

0.62%

Zenescope

0.60%

Udon

0.35%

Bongo

0.22%

Aspen

0.21%

Oni

0.21%

Random House

0.20%

Drawn & Quarterly

0.17%

Dabel

0.15%

Archie

0.14%

Abstract

0.14%

Cartoon

0.14%

Viz

0.11%

Gemstone

0.11%

Ardden

0.10%

Top Shelf

0.09%

Radical

0.09%

Moonstone

0.06%

Tokyopop

0.06%

Red 5

0.05%

THE FINE PRINT

The monthly sales estimates at right are for items shipped by Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic-book distributor in North America.

Diamond does not publish sales figures; instead it publishes "indexed" sales tables, in which it keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to a single comic book (usually Batman), with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders.

Along with other methods, we use the actual Diamond final orders from titles to approximate what an order index point equals each month.The result is applied to the Diamond charts to produce the estimates seen at right.

The figures represent only those comics and graphic novels that Diamond shipped to North American retailers in the calendar month. While Diamond's sales represent the majority of periodicals in circulation, they are a smaller portion of the overall graphic novel market.

An item may appear in more than one month's charts due to reorders; for a better idea of a comic book's overall sales, look for its end-of-year sales in the Year Overview section, where available.

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